‘The water came up so fast’: The heroes of Tonya Court and Wisconsin Street – Naples Daily News

Andrea Stetson| Correspondent

They are being called the heroes of Tonya Court and Wisconsin Street. As water rushed down their streets and into homes during Hurricane Ian, three men on paddleboards and a personal watercraft rescued more than a dozen people along with dogs, cats, rabbits and even a horse.

They say they dont feel like heroes, yet with downed power lines, they took big risks to paddle through the water knocking on doors and windows where they found people standing on countertops and tables to avoid the rapidly rising water.

I felt like it was something I had to do, Sammy Sosa said. I could not sit there knowing people could possibly drown.

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Sosa and his neighbor, Scott Sopher, grabbed two yellow and white paddleboards from a neighbors yard and began the quest of helping people. A block away Jules De Ron hopped on his personal watercraft to help.

It felt good that we were helping people, Sopher said. I didnt feel like a hero. I just did it.

Sosa said in some places the water was up to his neck and the winds were blowing at about 100 miles per hour. He had to paddle around fallen trees and falling tree limbs.

There was no emergency response and no one else was crazy enough to go out there, Sosa said. I just kept going until I got to every single house. I kept going from house to house banging on every door and window. If there was someone in there, I got them out.

At one house Sopher and Sosa had to make several trips to rescue two people, two dogs, two cats and a rabbit. Sosa paddled down to a barn at the very end of Wisconsin Street to open the doors and rescue a horse.

I was holding on to the horses neck and trying to get the barn door open, Sosa described. When we got him out, we walked him to the fire department.

The people that were rescued were taken to homes on dry land further down on Wisconsin Street.

The water came up so fast, Sopher said. We knew people were stuck in their houses so we grabbed the paddleboards and went. It was one of the craziest things Ive seen.

Paul Byrne stood on his kitchen table on Tonya Court as the water rose. When the water got higher than the four-foot-tall table, he put a milk crate on top of that and stood there. Byrne says he does not know how to swim, so it was scary.

The water came in very quickly, Byrne described. I had spent quite a bit of time getting my precious documents high and by the time that was done it was too high to get out. It was just all a big lake.

From his perch on the crate, Byrne saw the men with the paddleboards rescue his neighbors on both sides, before coming to his house.

Im not much of a swimmer, so he paddled in and took me on the board to the high house, Bryne said. I was elated.

Deanna and Jeff Martin were on their kitchen counter next door when the men came to rescue them.

The power lines came down in the backyard and there were sparks, Deanna Martin described. We wanted to keep out of the water because of all the sparks. When the power went off, we swam out.

Martin said they put some of their personal items on the paddleboard and hung on as they were towed to safety.

I swam to the other side of the driveway and then grabbed onto the surfboard and got out of here, Jeff Martin described.

Jules De Ron met Sosa and Sopher and teamed up to help pull the victims to safety. De Ron began his quest by simply helping one neighbor.

Once we were out there, I went to see if anybody else needed help, he said. It was nothing special. I was just out there.

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'The water came up so fast': The heroes of Tonya Court and Wisconsin Street - Naples Daily News